| dc.description.abstract | Voice applications (voice apps) are a key element in Voice
Assistant ecosystems such as Amazon Alexa and Google
Assistant, as they provide assistants with a wide range of
capabilities that users can invoke with a voice command. Most
voice apps, however, are developed by third parties—i.e., not
by Amazon/Google—and they are included in the ecosystem
through marketplaces akin to smartphone app stores but with
crucial differences, e.g., the voice app code is not hosted by
the marketplace and is not run on the local device. Previous
research has studied the security and privacy issues of voice
apps in the wild, finding evidence of bad practices by voice
app developers. However, developers’ perspectives are yet to
be explored.
In this paper, we report a qualitative study of the experiences of voice app developers and the challenges they face.
Our findings suggest that: 1) developers face several risks
due to liability pushed on to them by the more powerful
voice assistant platforms, which are linked to negative privacy
and security outcomes on voice assistant platforms; and 2)
there are key issues around monetization, privacy, design, and
testing rooted in problems with the voice app certification
process. We discuss the implications of our results for voice
app developers, platforms, regulators, and research on voice
app development and certification. | es |
